First Day – Red Day

My housemate invited me in to go to Phuket for her 35th birthday. Who cannot say no? I immediately submitted yet another leave and lucky because my boss allowed me even though I just got taken a leave a week before our travel.

Since Jill (her name), pay for the expenses, I booked for a tour to James Bond Island. Of course, out of courtesy, I cannot let her pay everything, hahaha. Her birthday was June 13 and she wants to celebrate outside Singapore. And so there we are, traveling on her day and my red day.

The travel that she booked was a deal package she bought online. Initially, she wants to go to Bali but the deal she bought from P-Way Travel Pte Ltd was not successful. They always said that we can get the voucher at a certain time but then when we called, they just say to wait. Until at some point when she cannot take it anymore because it’s already two days before our supposedly flight. She searched for another deal and found Phuket package for 3D2N thru TVI Holidays Pte Ltd. She requested the first travel agency at first to switch to another country but the agency did not give any option. So she requested to refund her money and the agency refunded her two weeks after. She got the money but then the hassle was already there.

She booked the package for 4D3N for SGD1,136 (USD900) for the two of us, a package of return trip by SilkAir and stay at Ibis Hotel with breakfast. The complimentary city tour was for those who bought the ticket with a morning flight.

First day, our flight was at 1320 and we will arrive in Phuket at 1750. There was something funny happened in the airplane and I am really really glad that we took our lunch before our flight. I didn’t know that the food in the plane was free (Oh, well, blame it all to the budget airlines that I used to booked). The flight attendant asked what food that I want to order and she told me what are the menus. Actually, I was reading “When Pigs Fly”, by Bob Sanchez when she asked me about the food. I was like, “Ahm, I’m not hungry”. I said “no” with a smile (blame it to the book that I read, I was smiling all the way and even laughed), and she asked if I want drinks. I was thinking that if I will order, (and I know that the food and drinks in the plane are extremely expensive), my budget for my shopping in Thailand will not be enough. And I was thinking that since the flight from Singapore to Phuket is only 1 hour, I’d better not order anything. I was wondering why all the passengers order food and I was thinking either they are rich or they didn’t take their lunch since the flight is 1320. I believed both.

When we arrived in Phuket, Jill told me that she’s not feeling well inside the plane because of the turbulence. I asked her if she ordered even water and she said she ordered tea. I asked her how much she paid and she answered me with weak voice, “foods and drinks there are free”. Wahhhhhhh… Stupid me.

When we arrived in Phuket airport, our driver from the agency haven’t arrived yet and we waited for around 5 minutes outside before he saw us. He was waiting inside all along, chatting maybe that’s why we haven’t seen our name waiving in the air.

Our driver named David stops in Cashew Nuts Factory to let us go around for a while when suddenly something pops-up and I knew it’s my red day. We went in and I just bought some nuts for us and for present to my colleagues then I told Jill that we need to go. Lucky that the trip is not that long.

We reached at Ibis hotel at around 4PM and they asked for a 1,500Bath (US48) to deposit. We took a rest and went out at 7PM to take our dinner. After dinner, we went to Bangla Road. I’ve been there before so I tour her around. It was the same face but then we were not able to see all those dancing lady boys because we went there earlier than expected. I asked her if she wants to see them, they will be around 10PM but then she’s not interested. So we went around and shop a little.

Our room:

The room was a bit small but the good thing is that there is a patio. The bad things are: the telephone receiver smells real bad even though we already put a wet tissue. The safety vault was not working and we have to call the reception a few times to let them fix it. They were able to fix the thing at around 11PM and we are so sleepy.

Bangla Road:

She’s lost 🙂

What summer taste like? Ask Starbucks!

Starbucks Patong Beach

This is summer! Says me.

After an hour or two of walking around, we headed back to hotel and sleep for an adventure on the next day.